IDF opposed cease fire
At Contentions, Noah Pollak reports that the IDF was not pleased with tonight's cease fire announcement.Opposition to the cease-fire has come principally from the IDF, which is furious at the politicians for stopping what has so far been a lopsided and successful operation that has seen far fewer IDF casualties than expected. The other source of dissent is public opinion, which remains overwhelmingly in favor of finishing the job, and especially against ceasing the operation without the recovery of Gilad Shalit. It is hard to see how Livni and Barak will benefit from all of this in the national elections scheduled for February 10th.No, it won't benefit Livni (whom Olmert tried to help out tonight in his press conference) or Barak. But it might gain them some Arab votes if the two Arab parties that were banned from the election last week (subject to Supreme Court appeal) remain on the sidelines.
I just hope Hamas doesn't take Noah's advice.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:34 AM
5 Comments:
The IDF was stopped short of victory. The politicians can't say Israel couldn't win. They didn't want to.
UPDATE (Hat Tip: Jameel At Muqata who stayed up well past his normal bedtime to see if the unilateral ceasefire would hold up): By the way Carl - the ceasefire is already histoire. It lasted all of 19 minutes before the Israel Air Force had to hit a Hamas rocket launcher that was going to launch a missile at Israel. It didn't last very long now, did it? And Hamas will never abide by it.
Once again Olmert has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
Israel gets nothing from this:
No Gilad Schalit
No stopping of rockets
No peace
Israelis will be very glad to see the inept and widely detested Ehud Olmert gone. He's not only a crook, he's a bumbler par excellence. His last war, he couldn't even go out covered in glory. Good riddance!
The truth is Hamas has suffered body blows. It lost top leaders, weapons and it didn't kill many Jews. And in the Arab World where perception matter, being forced to follow the Jews with a hudna was a sign of weakness, not one of strength. And Israel is still in Gaza and if Hamas decides to reignite hostilities, the next time Israel may decide not to stop. So regardless of what they say for public consumption in the Arab and world media, they have little appetite to renew the jihad against Israel for the foreseeable future. Moreover, the biggest visual image of their love of death ideology is Gaza being reduced to a pile of smoking ruins. Yeah, that "itbach al yahud" cry has been working out well for them so far!
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